


Odds Are, We're Gonna Be Alright (For Another Night)

by BlackWolf105



Series: The Odds are Long [1]
Category: Life (TV), Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Everyone's alive and happy, F/F, I'm just borrowing the characters, IDK if it's necessarily "graphic" but I figured it couldn't hurt to tag it, Post Season 5 POI, Root and Shaw being fluffy and cute, Same goes for the non-con, Technically takes place mid season 1 of Life, Violence, and going back to being cute, but you don't need any knowledge of the show itself, cause it's you know Root and Shaw, then kicking ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 17:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17605424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackWolf105/pseuds/BlackWolf105
Summary: After the fall of Samaritan, everything's been going pretty well for Team Machine; picking up new numbers and saving the day. Business as usual. Until the gang gets the number of a Detective Dani Reese in LA. A detective who happens to bear a shocking resemblance to one of their own.***This was inspired by the fact that Dani Reese from Life is played by Sarah Shahi, but you don't actually need any knowledge of the show itself for this fic.





	Odds Are, We're Gonna Be Alright (For Another Night)

**Author's Note:**

> Content Warnings -- there is a bit of violence (as mentioned in the tags), and some fairly graphic images of almost non-con, so if these are a trigger for you, please be safe.  
> Comments and Kudos are greatly appreciated!
> 
> Fic title if from the song Odds Are by BNL
> 
> Shout out to my wonderful beta (not to mention amazing friend) SylviaNighshade! I couldn't have done this without you - mostly because you're the one that convinced me to watch POI in the first place.

Root slowly awoke, unsure of what exactly it was that dragged her consciousness from the depths of slumber. Half awake, eyes closed, she lay still and - hearing nothing after a moment - started to fall back to sleep.

That’s when she registered the faint buzzing coming from the nightstand.

Groaning quietly, she reached blindly for the phone and, without checking the caller ID, answered it.

“Hello?” There was a small pause from the other end. Finally, after an awkward cough, the caller spoke up.

“Ms. Groves, I must say I wasn’t expecting you.” Eyes quickly opening, Root looked down at the phone in her hand, confirming that it was indeed, Sameen’s. She glanced over to the other side of the bed where Shaw lay, still sleeping and partially covered by the blankets, partially by Root herself.

“Well honestly Harry, you should know by now to never expect _anything_ about me.”

“I suppose. Either way, we have a new number, one I suspect that you and Ms. Shaw would be best to handle, so if you could… um… fetch her,” Root didn’t think that Harold had ever sounded as uncomfortable as he did in that moment, “and come to the subway, I would much appreciate it.”

“Sure, thing Harry, we’ll be there ASAP.” She clicked the phone off before he had a chance to respond, throwing it blindly onto the table, a dull thud the only tell that it actually made its way onto the wooden surface.

Stretching out slightly, rubbing her eyes with her hand, she turned over and faced the sleeping woman on her right.

Even after almost two years of sleeping together, and one year of actually – dare she say it – _dating_ , Root still couldn’t get over her beauty. Sleeping or awake, Root was one hundred percent convinced that Sameen was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Reaching out, she brushed some of the hair that had fallen into Shaw’s face while she slept. Feeling the touch, Shaw scrunched her nose and lazily batted Root’s hand away, grabbing her wrist.

“GbaktslpOot” Root raised an eyebrow at the unintelligible sounds coming from her girlfriend’s (partner’s? If she was being honest Root didn’t really know _what_ they were - she just knew that whatever it was, it was there to stay) mouth.

“Care to repeat that, honey? I didn’t really catch much.”

She watched, holding back a laugh, as Sameen opened one eye slightly to glare at the teasing lilt in her voice.

“I said, go back to sleep Root.” She closed her eye again, using the grip on Root’s wrist to pull closer.

“Well as much as I would to sweetie, Finch called – we have a new number.”

“So, let John take care of it. I feel like we’ve been doing all the work lately. I’ve barely gotten any sleep in the past couple of days.”

“Work… so is that what we’re calling last night now?” Root couldn’t keep her laughter in this time as Shaw half-heartily tried to shove Root off of her. “While I would normally be all for your plan, Finch said he felt we were more suited to the job than the big lug.”

Shaw groaned, finally rolling over onto her back, the sheets shifting with her and revealing her bare chest (which Root shameless admired) and threw an arm over her eyes. After a minute she sighed and dropped her arm, throwing the sheets off, revealing the rest of her (which Root also admired. She was an equal opportunist admirer after all) and stood up.

“Fine, but Finch can wait. I need to get a shower.” Root smiled, sliding out of bed behind Shaw, wrapping her arms around her waist, and pressing kisses to the back of Shaw’s shoulders and the side of her neck as Shaw leaned back into Root.

“You know what they say sweetie, great minds think alike.”

***

Thirty minutes and a rather unproductive (well, Root supposed that depended on your definition of _unproductive_ ) shower later, the two women walked into the subway, Bear immediately trying to take Shaw down in an attempt to lick her face.

Laughing, Root stepped over the wrestling pair and made her way over to Harold and Reese who were sitting solemnly by the computers (Root had known the two men for nearly four years now, and she had yet to see them be anything but bitterly serious).

“Morning Harry!” Root leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to Harold’s cheek, smiling to herself as he awkwardly fiddled with his glasses. She gave John a small wave before grabbing a nearby chair and, spinning it to the boys, relaxing into it. “So, who’s this new number?”

“She’s a police officer in Los Angeles, which is one of the reasons I would like for you and Ms. Shaw to handle this one.”

“Lieutenant riding your ass again about disappearing at all hours of the day?” Root stifled a laugh as John and Finch both jumped when Shaw spoke up. Apparently even after nearly four years they still hadn’t gotten used to Shaw’s near silent walk.

“Uh, yeah.” John stood up and straightened his suit, trying to look as though he hadn’t jumped a foot in the air. “That and I used up all of my vacation, sick, and personal days already.”

“Wait, you said, ‘one of’ the reasons,” Root leaned forward, “so what are the others?”

“Well…” Finch again fiddled with his glasses, a nervous tic of his. Root frowned, sharing a glance with Shaw, who looked just as confused as she felt. “There’s really only one other reason.”

When Finch made no attempt to continue, Root decided to prompt. “Which is…?” Harold didn’t respond, instead he simply shared a look with John, only adding to Roots confusion.

“Finch, who the hell is the number?” Irritation was starting to leak into Shaw’s tone, not that Root could blame her – after all, Harry called them at eight in the morning, while they were _in_ bed, to give them this number, and now he was acting like he didn’t want to.

Harold sighed. “Her name is Dani Reese.” Root frowned. She’d never heard that name before (well other than John, but she was pretty sure his name really _wasn’t_ Reese – not that she knew what it was), so she was unclear as to why Harold was so reluctant to give it to them. Glancing in Shaw’s direction though, Root was surprised to see confusion and something unreadable in Sameen’s expression. Before she got the chance to ask, or even really get a good look, Harry started speaking again, and she turned her attention back to him. “And this,” he clicked something on his monitors and am image popped up on the screen, “is her photograph.”

Root stared open-mouthed and slightly in shock at the image.

It was of a woman, perhaps a little older than herself by a year or two. Harold had mentioned she was a cop, and clearly the photograph was of her graduation from the police academy. She was wearing a blue police uniform and hat, but that wasn’t what made Root stop dead.

No, what made Root stop and stare, was the _very_ familiar face that was staring back at her from the image.

In the image, the name written across the bottom read _Dani Reese_ , but the face staring back at her was Sameen.

***

“So, tell me again. _Why_ did you hide the fact that you had a secret clone living in LA?” Sameen groaned, her head falling back and slamming into the headrest of her seat with a dull thud.

“I told you, I didn’t _know_ I had a secret clone.” She watched as Root twisted in her seat – as much as it would allow – pulling her leg up underneath her so that she was fully facing Sameen.

“But you know this Dani Reese person?” Shaw sighed again, scrunching her nose as she closed her eyes against a steadily growing headache. As much as she loved her (and she really did, despite Shaw’s… complicated relationship with emotions, she was sure of that), Root still had a unique way of getting under Shaw’s skin at the most inopportune moments. Like on an airplane, about to fly across the country in order to save someone that she hasn’t seen in years.

“Yes. She’s my cousin.” Even with her eyes closed, Shaw could feel the intensity of Root’s gaze as she continued to stare, waiting for Shaw to continue. If it were anyone else, Shaw would have probably punched them – actually, she probably would have punched Root too, it’s just that she was tired and didn’t feel like expending the energy.

Even as she thought it, a voice in the back of her head (that sounded suspiciously like Root) snarked that she would never hit Root, and as she started talking again, Shaw resigned herself to admitting that the voice was probably right. “Her mother was my mother’s sister. Dani’s a couple of years older than me, about three if I remember correctly. Our moms used to be super close. Then, when I was about fifteen, I just… stopped going with my mom to their house. Dani and I didn’t really have much in common, and I don’t think my aunt and uncle liked me all that much.” At Roots confused stare, Shaw elaborated, “I think I always kind of… freaked them out. Dani too.” Root paused a moment, before nodding slowly, “When I went off to college and med school, I sometimes talked to my aunt on the phone, but mostly I didn’t really talk to them at all.”

She felt Root shifting beside her and, opening her eyes, turned her head to see Root, now somehow turned fully in the tiny airplane seat, knees on the cushion and head leaning back against the headrest. Feeling something brush her hand, Sameen allowed Root to intertwin their fingers (despite what Root may tell people, Shaw _never_ initiates contact, she just… never rejects it). Looking up, she found Root gazing at her with a soft expression. “What happened?”

Sameen shrugged, still gazing at their entwined fingers, her other hand coming up and running gently across the back of Root’s hand.  “After my father died, my mother started to rely really heavily on her sister for help. With me, the house, work, everything. But my uncle… well, he didn’t really help.” Shaw paused, unsure of what to say.

“What do you mean?” Root’s voice was quiet. Soft.

Sameen sighed, dropping her one hand into her lap, but keeping the other in Root’s. “My uncle was never all that accepting of my parents. He didn’t like that they spoke Farsi at home, or that they continued practicing Iranian customs, celebrating Iranian holidays. Honestly, I don’t think he really liked the fact that they were Persian. God only knows why he married my aunt.”

“Sweetie, I’m pretty sure even She couldn’t answer that.” Sameen let out a laugh at that, Root quickly following suit.

“Anyway, my aunt and uncle didn’t really approve of my joining the Marines, so when I did, I just kind of… stopped talking to them all together. Them the ISA came calling, and I stopped calling even my mother.” Shaw shrugged. “It just didn’t really matter to me.”

“So…” Shaw looked over at her partner (in the purely work meaning of the word) as Root slowly mulled over her words, “are you… interested,” Shaw watched as Root nodded to herself, clearly pleased with her word choice, “in seeing your cousin again?”

“I don’t know, Root.” Shaw looked out the window, trying her damnedest to avoid Root’s gaze, feeling rather uncomfortable with the discussion, “I don’t really… _care_ about them. I never did. Not like I care about you. Or John and Finch,” she hastily added, after realizing what her words could be taken as; wouldn’t want Root to get the wrong impression about them after all.

Although, judging from the smile she could _feel_ radiating against the back of her head as she stubbornly refused to look, Root wasn’t buying it. “Besides,” she continued on, hoping that Root wouldn’t bring up her slip, “like I said, they never really liked me all that much, specifically Dani. I think I kind of frightened her.”

Root chuckled, and Shaw felt the weight of Root’s hand in hers shift as the other woman leaned over, and Shaw felt the brush of lips against the side of her neck.

“Well Shaw, you _are_ pretty frightening.”

And if Shaw didn’t shove Root away, allowing her to rest her chin on Shaw’s shoulder, staring out the window and occasionally brushing her lips against Shaw’s cheek, well, it’ not like anyone was there to see it.

***

Walking out onto the sunlit skywalk, Shaw pulled her sunglasses off of her shirt with on hand and placed them on her face, watching from the corner eye as Root did the same. Keeping hold of her single suitcase in her other hand she stepped farther onto the sidewalk, unsure of where to go.

Stepping up beside her, Root looked around the small airport plaza.

“So where to first? We can either check into the hotel and unpack, or head straight to the precinct.” Shaw frowned.

“I think I’d rather unpack first.” Root nodded, throwing Sameen a crooked grin.

“Guess you’re right, after all we wouldn’t want to walk into a police station with bags full of illegal and unregistered guns, now would we?” Shaw snorted.

“Right, ‘cause that would be a first.” Root looked over at her, face awash with mock horror as she placed the hand not gripping her bag over her heart.

“Why Sameen! Are you telling me that you’ve,” She looked around furtively before leaning in, her lips brushing the shell of Sameen’s ear, breath hot on the side of her face, “ _broken the law_?”

Shaw felt her heart skip a few beats before she shook her head and shoved Root away, glaring. “How is it that you make even that, sound dirty?”

Root laughed, grabbing Shaw’s hand before she had a chance to pull it away. “What can I say Sameen, it’s a gift.”

***

After they had unpacked (and, despite Root’s many attempts to… _distract_ Shaw, _only_ unpacked) the two women set out.

“So, do you think we should just, like, walk into the precinct?” They were in a car across and down the street from the Los Angeles police station where Finch had told them Dani Reese worked, Shaw in the driver’s side, Root in shotgun.

Shaw laughed, “And do what? Walk up to her and say, ‘Hi I’m the cousin you haven’t seen since you were, like, fourteen, you’re in life threatening danger and me my crazy ASI worshipping partner are here to save you?’”

“Aww Sameen, you think of me as your partner?” Shaw scowled at Root.

“You know what I meant.”

“True, but I think I like my definition better.” Shaw closed her eyes and let out another groan as her head – once again – dropped heavily back into the headrest. At this rate, she was going to give herself a concussion by the end of the week.

“Relax sweetie.” Despite her annoyance and frustration, Shaw couldn’t keep her lips from twitching into a small smile as she felt Root press a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “I have a plan. Wait here.”

With that, Root was out the door, Shaw’s eyes opening just in time to see the passenger side door close behind Root as she exited the car.

With yet another groan, Shaw closed her eyes again. Regardless of whatever crazy and probably dangerous plan Root had up her sleeve, at least Shaw could catch up on some sleep.

***

“So, it doesn’t really matter if I’m here, because I’m not.” Dani let her head fall forward onto her arms, trying in vain to block out the inane rambling of her (probably) crazy partner. Why she didn’t ask Lt. Davis for a new partner was beyond her; anything would be better than having to listen to Charlie go on about… whatever it was he was talking about now. Particle physics, or something like that.

Dani looked up over her arms, glaring at the redheaded man sitting across from her. “If you’re not really here, then why can I still hear you?” She smiled to herself as that seemed to shut him up.

Sitting up straighter, she stretched her hands above her head before reaching down and pulling a stack of papers out of the open drawer. Spreading them across the desk, she began to fill out the paper work in silence. A quick glance at Crews showed that he was _not_ doing paper work, but rather playing with some kind of extremely small fruit. Typical.

Distantly, Dani heard the elevator doors open form outside the bullpen, and she heard an unfamiliar woman talking with one of the uniformed cops at the doorway. After a few moments, the noise faded away and she shrugged it off, figuring it was some person wanting to find somebody.

It wasn’t until she heard the same voice at her left that she started to wonder exactly who this woman was looking for.

“Umm, excuse me?” Looking up, Dani found herself looking into the face of a rather tall brunette sporting an awkward smile. “Are you Dani Reese?”

Dani frowned, placing her pen on her desk and standing up, faintly annoyed that even standing she was shorter then this woman. “Yes, I’m Detective Reese, how can I help you?” She gestured to an empty chair nearby, implying that the woman should sit down.

The woman’s smile became much less awkward as she dragged the chair over and placed it by Dani’s desk. “Well that’s a relief, I would hate to have bothered the wrong person.” Dani shared a confused glace with Charlie, who stood up.

“Hi there, I’m Detective Crews, Dani’s-” The woman, who had been watching him, gave a small laugh before turning completely away and ignoring him.

She held out her hand to Dani, the other remaining within her jacket pocket. “My name’s Samantha.” Dani stared at the hand for a moment before switching her glare to the woman’s face, not intending on taking it.

Unlike most people’s, the woman’s smile didn’t fade at Dani’s display of inhospitality, rather, it looked as the she was _delighted_ by it.

The three of them sat (well, stood in Dani’s case) in silence for a few moments, until Dani managed to catch Lt. Davis’s eye through her door. Frowning, the older woman came out of her office and walked over.

“Everything alright here Reese?” The seated woman – Samantha – looked over her shoulder at the Lieutenant.

“Of course.” The woman stood up, stretching her neck before placing the hand that had been extended towards Dani into her jacket. “I just thought I would come in and introduce myself.” That caught Dani’s attention. “Guess I’ll be seeing you.” The woman threw her a wink, before turning and walking (no, Dani was pretty sure she was _strutting_ ) away. As she walked into the elevator and turned around, Dani met her eyes once more before the door shut fully.

There was a moment of silence, Crews, Reese and Davis all staring after the woman, and at each other.

Crews shook his head briefly, before moving swiftly into Davis’ office and to her windows – which overlooked the street outside – Dani and Davis right behind him.

Peering out the window, Dani caught sight of the strange woman as she exited the front of the building. As they watched, the woman crossed the street onto the side walk down the other side of the road, and just when Dani thought she would turn the corner and disappear, she watching as the woman stopped at a black sports car parked at the corner, pulled open the passenger door and slipped inside.

The car was far enough away that Dani couldn’t make out a license plate, and the sun was glaring directly into the windshield, so it was impossible to see who else was in the car.

For a few moments the car remained where it was, unmoving and parked, before the lighted suddenly blinked on, and the car pulled into traffic. Dani watched as it passed the station before turning the corner and disappearing. A glance to her left showed Crews with his phone out; it looked as though he tried to take pictures of the car before it pulled away, and perhaps even after.

For a moment there was utter silence as the three of them stared at where the car had disappeared, before Dani finally found her voice.

 “What the hell was that about?”

***

Exiting the precinct, Root glance briefly down both sides of the street, not really feeling like getting run over at the present moment, before walking swiftly across the street. After a few moments she got to the car, where she could see Sameen inside, looking as though she were asleep (Root knew better though, there was no way Sameen would really be asleep when she didn’t know what Root was doing or if she was safe). Pulling the door open, she slipped inside.

Immediately, Sameen’s eyes opened, locking directly on Root’s. She glared, unmoving, as Root pulled her seatbelt down across her chest.

“What the hell was that, Root?” Root glanced up, before pulling out her phone and tossing it into Shaw’s lap.

“I figured it was the best way to blue-jack her phone. I mean, I was walking into a precinct, not Fort Knox.” Not that Root had never just walked into Fort Knox, but what Sameen didn’t know didn’t hurt. Root could feel Shaw’s glare boring into the side of her head. She sighed. “Relax Sameen, I just needed to get close enough to blue jack her phone without raising suspicion.”

Shaw snorted as she inserted the keys, but Root noticed that she did seem to have relaxed slightly. “Right, cause I’m sure _whatever_ you did, allayed all suspicion.”

Root smiled at her as they pulled out into traffic. “Okay, so maybe I raised a _little_ suspicion.”

***

Shaw dropped Root’s phone onto the bed as she collapsed backwards onto the bedcover.  It had been two hours since Root had “infiltrated” the police station and blue-jacked the number’s phone. Two hours spend combing through every inch of this woman’s online footprint, and so far, they’d come up with shit.

Root leaned over and brushed hair from her face. “What’s up?” Shaw glared at the ceiling.

“I can’t find anything strange, threatening, or even corrupt on her phone. She has like three contacts, almost no messages, and her outgoing and incoming calls are all to the same two people – her partner Crews and occasionally her supervising lieutenant, that Davis woman.” She closed her eyes as Root ran her fingers through Sameen’s hair.

“And I’ve looked through her emails, both personal and work related.” Root mused from somewhere above her. “But just because there’s nothing suspicious on her phone or computer doesn’t mean she’s not in danger, or about to put someone else in it. I mean,” at this point Shaw couldn’t really tell is Root was talking to her, or to herself, “maybe she’s smart enough not to put her nefarious plans online.”

Shaw opened her eyes and rolled onto her side, staring at Root. “Did you really just say ‘nefarious’?” Root rolled her eyes.

“It’s a good word. Besides,” she captured Shaw’s hand in her own, “as I was saying, we should probably check out her house.”

“Yeah Root,” It was Shaw’s turn to roll her eyes, “because breaking into a cop’s house is a great idea.”

“Well, it’s not like it would be the first time we’ve done it.”

“How about this,” Shaw sat up, “I’ll check out the house, you tail the number, that way if she decides to go home before I’m done scoping the place out and bugging it, you can let me know.”

Root grinned at her, “Sounds like a plan, sweetie.”

***

For the rest of the day, Dani couldn’t get that bizarre encounter out of her head. She’d been a cop for close to five years, and a detective for two of them, and never had she experienced something like that. Random people coming into the station wanting to talk to her (or really just cops in general) was commonplace, but they always wanted to report a crime, or aid an ongoing investigation. Someone who just wanted to introduce herself with absolutely no explanation? That was just plain weird.

“Hey Reese, you okay?” Dani jumped a little, not realizing just how close Crews was. She shook her head, dropping her pen onto the desk and rubbing her eyes with her hand. She’d been trying to do paper work since that morning, but now it was close to ten o’clock at night, and she’d barely finished a single sheet.

“Yeah, I’m just a little… distracted.”

Crews nodded understandingly. “Well how would you feel about some answers?”

Dani’s head shot up. “You got a picture of the license plate?” He nodded a smile lighting up his features.

“Yup, those guys in IT really know how to enhance these pictures. Twelve years ago, you’d have been out of luck, but as it turns out, I got a pretty clear image.” He came around to her computer, and, after hitting a few buttons, pulled up an enhanced image of a license plate, which could be read fairly easily.

Dani tilted her head as she looked at the image. “Is that a rental car?”

“Yup,” Crews leaned over again and pulled up electronic documents; a quick look told Reese they were the rental agreement papers. “So, I called the rental company up and managed to get the name of the person who rented the car.” He paused.

Dani looked at him, annoyed that he didn’t continue. “Well? Who was it?”

Crews smiled, “The car was rented out to one Samantha Hart early this morning.”

“Samantha Hart… did you find anything else, charges made to her credit card, anything like that?”

Crews smiled and held out Dani’s coat. “She made a charge to a hotel downtown this morning. What do you say you and I go check it out?” Dani smiled.

“Sounds like a plan, partner.”

***

Dani let out a whistle as they pulled up outside the hotel. When Crews had said that this Samantha person had charged to a hotel, she was expecting a low-cost rundown place, not a five-star hotel in the middle of the city. One look at Crews told her he’d kind of expected the same.

“I didn’t even know this place existed…” He sounded sort of in awe of the building. Dani rolled her eyes, stepping out of the car and making her way towards the building. 

The doorman opened the door for her as she approached, only hesitating a moment before she flashed the badge clipped to her belt, Crews a couple of steps behind her. Once inside, she made her way to the front desk.

“Welcome!” The man working the desk smiled at her she approached, “How may I help you?” Dani responded by pulling her badge off her belt and placing it on the desk, Crews following suit.

The man’s smile dropped, and he quickly brushed the lapels of his jacket down. “Yes, officers,” Dani glared at him, “Err, detectives. What can do for you?”

“A woman by the same of Samantha Hart checked in here sometime this morning.” The man started typing away at his computer as he rushed to verify Dani’s intel. “I want to know what room.”

“Well I can tell you that a woman of that name did indeed check in here around ten this morning, but I’m afraid that I can’t tell you the room number.”

Dani raised an eyebrow at the nervous man, and Crews stepped in.

“I’m sorry sir, do you see what the lady has in her hand,” he nodded to the badge still held in Dani’s hand on the desk. “I’m pretty sure that gives you the authority to tell us. Unless you want us to come back with a search warrant and team of uniformed officers.”

The man swallowed nervously before nodding, “Of course, sorry detectives.” He again started typing at his computer. “She is staying in room 435.” Dani nodded, withdrew her hand and her and Crews made their way over to the elevator. Stepping inside, she hit the button to take them to the fourth floor.

“What do you think well find?” Dani shrugged at the question.

“Honestly? I have no idea and I don’t particularly care, so long as I get answers.” Crews nodded, that seemed to be a pretty Dani-esc answer.

The elevator dinged, and the door opened, revealing the fancy carpet covered, painting papered hallway. “Room 435…” Dani stepped out the elevator and walked up to the sign across from it, “it’s this way, to the right.” Crews nodded, following as Dani made her way towards the door, and hopefully, some answers.

“423… 425… 427… 429… 431… 432… 435.” Dani stopped outside the door. It didn’t look any different than the rest of the hotel room doors (Dani berated herself for thinking that it would, after all it’s a hotel, everything looks the same in hotels, but for some reason she felt as though it should be… more). She raised her hand and knocked.

Despite the door being fairly soundproof (which only made Dani wonder exactly what kind of customers this hotel catered too), she would make out the sounds of someone shuffling around inside, but no one opened the door.

She was getting ready to knock again, and maybe inform the occupants of her occupation, when the door suddenly swung inward, revealing the woman from early that morning, the keyword being: revealing.

The woman was wearing a pair of the lowest riding sweatpants Dani had ever seen, resting low enough on the woman’s hips to reveal the edges (or a little more) of her underwear. She was wearing a zip up sleeveless jacket that was inches to small on her, showing off her abs, and unzipped low enough to reveal that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath it, her dark brown hair falling over one shoulder as she tilted her head at the two detectives and smiled.

Dani could feel her face growing redder by the second, and glance at Crews showed that he didn’t know _where_ to look, choosing to focus his gaze instead on Dani, which also meant she had to take charge of the situation.

“Umm… right. Uh…” This whole clothing (or lack-there-of) situation really threw her off. “Samantha Hart, correct?”

The woman raised an eyebrow, her smile still firmly in place. “See detective? I told you I’d be seeing you.”

Dani blinked. Crews took over. “Excuse me, but we were hoping we could ask you a few questions, like why exactly you were at the station this morning?”

The woman tilted her head the other way. “I didn’t realize it was illegal to enter a precinct.”

Dani scowled. “It’s not, but I have to say, walking into a police station, introducing yourself to a random officer and then leaving is rather suspicious.”

“I suppose it is.” The woman made no effort to either let them in, or to close the door. A rather uncomfortable silence fell over the group, Dani and Crews unsure of what to say, and the woman seemingly enjoying the awkwardness.

Just then the bathroom door in the room opened.

“Root, who the hell are you talking to? I swear to god if you ordered room service and didn’t tell me first…” Dani tried to get a look at this new woman, but couldn’t see over Samantha (or Root? Honestly Dani didn’t know what to with that), the woman was taller than she was and blocking almost the entire doorway. She glanced up at Crews who would have a better line of sight, but he looked as confused as she felt.

Turning back to the woman in the door with more apprehension, Dani looked back in time to see the woman smirk at her, before deadass _rolling_ around the doorframe, so that instead of leaning against it with her hand, she had to back to the frame, feet still pressing into the opposite bottom corner. She turned to face the room, her voice becoming… sultry?

“But sweetie, why would I need to order room service? I thought we had-”

“I swear to god if you finish that sentence…” The other woman left the threat hanging in the air as she stepped into Dani’s line of sight.

The new woman was shorter than the first, with darker hair and skin. She was wearing almost equally as little clothing, just a pair of boy shorts and a tank-top, towel still held in her hands as she dried her hair. But it was her face that caught Dani’s attention. She was glaring at the woman in the doorframe, a scowl on her face. The same face that Dani saw every day when she looked in a mirror.

The second woman looked exactly like Dani.

She could here Crews beside her, spluttering in surprise, but she was more focused on the woman, who had just caught sight of the two detectives in the door, her scowl and glare deepening in response.

Dani finally found her voice.

“Sameen?”

***

“So, you mean to tell me, that you two are related?” Shaw cocked her eyebrow at the redheaded cop, whose name she forgot three minutes after meeting him, who was looking rapidly between her and Dani. Root was being about as equally as helpful, just sitting there on the small desk, still half naked (not that Shaw minded). It had been twenty minutes since Root had, for some reason, let the two into their room.

“No, we’re just clones of one another,” Shaw snarked, smirking as Root let out a laugh from across the room.

Dani glared at her. “We’re cousins Crews, except I haven’t seen her in God, like ten years.”

“Fifteen actually.” Everyone in the room looked at Root, even Shaw (sure, she’d told Root about the… situation… surrounding their two families, but she hadn’t mentioned any specific times). Root shrugged. “What? She told me.” Root gestured to Sameen, but Shaw knew enough to know that while Root was talking _to_ her, she wasn’t talking _about_ her.

Shaw just nodded. “It’s been fifteen years.”

“Right.” Dani didn’t sound like she really bought anything that was just said. “So, what are you doing here in LA now?”

Shaw shrugged. “Work.”

“Work? What kind of work?”

Shaw glared at her cousin. “Work.” She glanced at the clock on the nightstand, “Which, speaking of, we have a lot to do tomorrow, so we should probably get to bed.”

She watched as Dani nodded, Crews still looking confused and maybe in shock at the idea that she and Reese were cousins.

“Right… well, we’ll be on our way. I guess.” The part was more muttered under her breath as she turned to Crews. “Come on, we should go.” He nodded, still looking between the two of them as Shaw ushered them out the door, slamming it behind them.

Placing both hand on the door, she leaned her head forward and tried to envision _not_ killing Root. Taking a few deep breaths, she turned and crossed her arms glaring across the room. Root spread her arms out to the side.

“What was I supposed to do?” Somehow it was comforting to know that, despite the anger, Root still knew what she was thinking. “It’s not like I invited them to come knocking on the door. How was I supposed to know that was going to happen?”

“Oh, I don’t know, how about the little voice in your head?”

Roots arms dropped to her sides and she shrugged. “She only told me they were coming seconds before they knocked on the door. She might be semi-omniscient, but she isn’t an _actual_ God.”

Shaw took a deep breath, eyes closing. She knew that this whole situation wasn’t _really_ Root’s fault, or even the Machine’s for that matter, but she’d been feeling on edge since they got this damn assignment, and coming face to face with her past wasn’t doing her any favors.

“Hey,” Shaw opened her eyes, slightly startled by how close Root had gotten without her noticing. She was now standing about an arm’s length away from Shaw, an apologetic grin on her face, eyes awash with worry. “I don’t know exactly what happened between you guys, but you know I wouldn’t do anything that would make you uncomfortable.” Shaw nodded. She did know; no matter what else was happening, whether it was real or simulated, the one thing that always remained was the certainty that somehow, Root would be there for her, even if no one else was.

“Look,” Root reached out, pulling Shaw closer by the arms, which uncrossed from in front of Shaw’s chest – almost on instinct – and wrapped around Roots waist as Root threaded her fingers through her hair. “if you want, I can call Harry and have him send Fusco and the big lug, damn their work schedules. Just say the word and we’ll be out of here.”

Shaw shook her head, pressing her nose against Root’s collarbone as she pressed closer. “It’s fine. Honestly. It’s nothing bad. Our mothers just drifted apart and after a while we stopped talking.  It’s just… weird, seeing her again.”

Above her, Root nodded. She could empathize with that.

“Let’s just get this job done so that we can go back home.”

***

It’s been three days. Three days since her cousin, who Dani hadn’t seen since she was probably about fifteen, had just walked back into her life as though she’d never left.

Well, that really wasn’t true. She showed back and acted as though she wanted nothing to do with Dani, which really wasn’t all that different from how Sameen had acted when they were kids. The woman was three years younger than Dani, but seemed worlds away, even when they were kids.

“And I thought _you_ never looked happy.”

It didn’t help that her moron of a partner wouldn’t shut up about it.

“Like seriously, she was like a whole other level of grump.”

“Who is this?” Dani’s head shot up as she heard Davis’ voice. She glared at Crews, willing him to stop talking. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to see her.

“You remember that woman who came in here the other day, the one who wanted to, uh, talk to Reese?” Davis frowned, nodding. “Well apparently she wanted to see Reese because she was in town with Reese’s cousin, a woman named Sameen, and wanted to see if they really looked exactly alike.”

Davis raised her eyebrow, “And you would know this why, exactly?”

“We thought that the encounter was… suspicious, to say the least, so when Crews’ photograph of the car came back with a clear license plate, we checked it out and, after asking around, found out where she was staying, apparently with my cousin.”

Davis nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. She turned to Crews.

“You said she looked exactly like Reese?” Crews nodded. “How similar were they in other respects?”

Dani groaned, dropping her head onto her arms. It was going to be a long day.

 ***

Dani sighed as she got into her car, Crews climbing into the passenger seat. The two detectives had been called out to a homicide scene.

“So, what do you think happened? I mean three people dead? That’s a pretty big body count.” Dani continued to stare straight ahead as she answered her partner.

“I’m going to guess some nut job with a gun entered the store, and short the three people who were in it. A robbery gone wrong maybe. Or some sort of revenge killing.”

Crews nodded, “True, true. After all, most killings come back to the same three reasons: sex, money, drugs.” For a moment, Dani thought he was going to stop there. “Although,” Or not, “I’ve never understood violence myself. After all, we are all connected, and so violence against others-”

"-would be violence against yourself. Yeah, I got it, Buddha." Dani could  _feel_ Crews smiling at her.

“See? I knew you listened to me.”

“I really wish I didn’t.” Crews shook his head at her, but didn’t say anything as she turned a corner, heading towards the outskirts of town where the triple homicide had taken place.

Coming to a crossroads, she continued straight.

Unfortunately, so did the other guy.

***

She couldn’t breathe. No, not _couldn’t_ , she could, it was just… difficult. That was the first thing that Dani noticed.

It was difficult to breathe, and she couldn’t move her arms. Or legs. Or anything really. She felt as though there were a massive weight drawing her down, preventing her muscles from working properly. Groaning, she slowly opened her eyes.

It was dark, and she couldn’t really see. Not that she really wanted to, after all, the minute her eyes opened, she became aware of the blinding pain in her head, pulsing and throbbing right above and behind her eyes. Frankly, she just wanted to go back to sleep. At least then nothing hurt.

“Dani?... Dani!” Distantly, she heard someone calling her name. “Dani! Hey Dani, stay with me okay?” She recognized the voice. Fighting against the urge to just go back to sleep, she slowly opened her eyes again, turning her head – despite the blinding pain – to see Crews, sitting with his ankles and wrists bound to a chair. Looking down, she realized that she was similarly bound, explaining why she couldn’t move.

Crews looked beat up, he had a cut above his eye and one on his cheek. It looked almost as though his head had been smashed into a sheet of glass.

Her eyes started slipping shut, head starting to loll backwards.

“Dani! Damn it.” She heard him curse as he struggled to move to her, and distantly she knew that she was probably hurt, badly, and that falling asleep was _not_ a good idea, but it was so _hard_.

“Dani. Dani listen to me, stay awake okay?” Eyes drifting open again, she turned her head towards the ceiling, trying to stop the world from spinning. _What the hell happened?_

“Dani, there was an accident okay? You’re hurt pretty bad, but you have to stay awake got it? Stay awake Reese, that’s an order.” Dani’s lips twitched into a small smile, of course Crews would use this opportunity to order her around.

She heard a door open somewhere behind her. Footsteps. Her head tilted slightly towards Crews again, and she watched as a man – she couldn’t really see who – shoved something into his mouth. Muffled talking from her left told her that there was at least one other person in the room. As the footsteps got closer, someone shoved her head forward. Her head swam as her vision drifted in and out and the impact.

“Well look what we caught here.  A couple of pigs. Hey Jorge, you know what we do to pigs?” As her vision came back, she saw someone kneeling in front of her. A man, Hispanic by the look of him, his arms covered in gang tattoos.

What Dani couldn’t figure out, was what they were doing here, with her. Or more accurately, she couldn’t figure out what _she_ was doing with _them_.

A second figure – supposedly Jorge – stepped into her line of sight, also sporting tattoos, this time across his bare chest.

“Yeah man. We kill ‘em.”

The other man smiled, grinning at Dani as he reached out and grasped her face. “You know what we do _lady_ cops, Jorge? You know what we do to _pretty_ lady cops?” A smile started to cross Jorge’s face.

Dani was starting to think that she _really_ wouldn’t like where this was going.

“No man, I don’t think I do.” Even half-conscious Dani could tell that was an utter lie.

The man kneeling in front of her pulled a knife from his belt, holding it in front of her face before dropping it down to the v where her shirt was buttoned. Dani felt the knife bite into the skin above her sternum as the man took the knife and popped the button of her shirt off, systematically going down, until her button-up was hanging open. Distantly, she heard Crews, and probably Davis, yelling something, but she wasn’t sure it sounded that way because of the gags, or because she was about thirty seconds from falling unconscious.

 “Well, Jorge, looks like you’re about to find out.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s not.” The hand holding her face dropped away as a different voice spoke up. This one female, playful, lilting. Definitely _not_ Jorge. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Dani thought the voice sounded kind of familiar.

***

“You know we do to _lady_ cops, Jorge? You know what we do to _pretty_ lady cops?”

Charlie struggled against his bounds as he watched the guy cut open Reese’s shirt. She looked half out of it, her eyes only focusing for a few seconds at a time before glazing over. It probably didn’t help that there was blood dripping into her eye from the massive cut above it she’d gotten when the van hit their car.

“No man, I don’t think I do.”

He didn’t know what these guys wanted with them, but he sure as _hell_ wasn’t going to let anything happen to Reese, especially with him sitting less than five feet away, but first he had to get out of these impossible zip ties.

He watched the man finish cutting Reese’s shirt open, smiling as he dropped the knife to the button on her jeans, cutting it open.

“Well, Jorge, looks like you’re about to find out.”

Charlie felt a moment of dread as he watched the man’s hands start to slip beneath Reese’s jeans.

“I’m pretty sure he’s not.”

Everyone jerked around. The guy kneeling in front of Reese let go of her face, his hands coming up as he stood up and whipped around. Jorge turned, starting to pull a gun out of his waistband, but before he could pull it out all the way, an odd sound echoed throughout the empty warehouse and he collapsed, a scream clawing its way from his throat.

Charlie had spent enough time around guns to recognize a gunshot when the bullet was fired with a silencer. Charlie froze as Jorge clutched his knee, yelling profanities as a now familiar figure stepped into view from the shadows.

“Marcus Ramirez, didn’t anyone ever tell you consent was key?” Charlie stared in shock as Samantha Hart stepped closer. She was watching the man – Marcus, he guessed – a playful frown on her face. She scrunched her nose up, looking mildly disapproving, her voice conversational, “You know, consent is like tea.”

“What the fuck?” Marcus stood, unmoving, half in shock half furious as she moved closer.

“You know, if you make someone tea, and they don’t want it, you don’t just pour it down their throats. Or you know,’ she looked pointedly behind him to Dani, who was mostly unconscious at the point, “hit them with a car.”

“You better fucking tell me who the fuck you are, or I’m gonna fuck you up for real, got it?” He drew his knife from where ever he’d stashed it and held it threateningly in front of him, and Charlie had to admit, it looked pretty threatening. The blade was about seven inches long, real thin – custom made probably.

Samantha just smiled at him, hands tucked into her jean’s pockets, seemingly unaffected by the knife wielding gang member standing less than six feet away.

“Just call me Root-” the word had barely left her mouth when Marcus shot forward, clearly done fucking around, and two more shots echoed though the building – this time it was Marcus who collapsed onto the floor, Samantha (Root?) staring down at him, “-bitch.”

***

Shaw lowered the gun as soon as she saw Marcus drop. She was pretty confident that he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon; she’d hit him in both kneecaps. Looking up she saw Root grinning at her from the other side of the warehouse.

 _Goddamn drama queen_. Honestly, Shaw couldn’t figure out what was with Root and being dramatic. If things had gone her way, she would have just shot them the minute her and Root had entered the warehouse, none of this weird-ass talking crap.

But Root wanted to do it, and so Sameen decided to let Root have her way (it was _not_ because Root had pouted. Shaw’s decision had _absolutely nothing_ to do with that).

Rolling her eyes, she tucked her gun into the back of her jeans, making her way towards the two people currently tied up in the center of the room, Root doing the same. Root got there first and ungagged Crews, so Shaw made her way to her cousins’ side.

Dani looked to be in pretty bad shape. She appeared to be semi-conscious, if not unconscious – it was difficult to tell. There was a gash above her eye, which was the source of the blood dripping down the side of her face and down her neck, staining the light purple of her shirt. She also appeared to be having trouble breathing. A quick look at her ribs, courtesy of the now ripped shirt (something Shaw would have to pay Marcus back for – not because she particularly cared about Dani, it’s just that guys like that tended to rub Shaw the wrong way), showed deep purple bruising coating most of her right side, and indication of broken ribs, and maybe internal bleeding. Pulling her knife from her boot, she reached forward and cut the zip ties holding Dani in place.

“Hey Root, a little help here?” Shaw grunted as she grasped Dani under the arms. Under normal circumstances she could have easily carried the woman – despite being the same size, Dani seemed to weigh a lot less then herself – but she didn’t want to risk farther injury before she knew the extent of the injuries. A second set of hands appeared in Shaw’s periphery as Root helped lift Dani out of the chair and place her gently on the floor.

“What the hell is going on here? What are you doing?” Shaw glared up at the man still bound to a chair. It appeared as though the detective had recovered from his shock.

“Helping. What does it look like?” Crews opened his mouth, probably to ask some other stupid question, and Shaw simply turned back to the body lying on the floor, promptly ignoring whatever the guy was saying and instead addressing Root.

“Get those guys to shut up, will you?” She gestured with her head towards the still screaming and cursing gang members on the floor, lying in steadily growing pools of their own blood. “And patch them up. I don’t want them to bleed out yet.” Root simply grinned at her, before quickly moving to do what Shaw had asked.

After a few moments, the cursing stopped. Shaw didn’t even bother turning around to see how Root had managed it. Rather, she turned her attention towards Dani. “Hey Root, find me some sort of liquid, will you? I need to wash this blood off.” She heard some rustling behind her as she gently turned Dani’s head in order to farther inspect the gash on her forehead. Moments later, a bottle of vodka was placed next to her hand, along with a piece of cloth that looked like it was a piece of a shirt-- probably Marcus’.

“Thanks.”

“Anything for you, sweetie.” Shaw opened the bottle of vodka and poured some onto the cloth, before proceeding to wipe away the blood coating her cousins face. She figured Dani would be pretty happy she was basically unconscious-- Shaw knew from personal experience that this hurt like a mother.

After a couple of minutes, she had wiped enough blood away to see the actual injury. As far as head wounds went, it wasn’t the worst that Shaw had ever seen, but it probably hurt like hell, and it was likely Dani would have a concussion. Dragging her bag closer, Shaw reached in and, after rummaging through her arsenal, pulled out a couple of bandages.

Once Dani’s head injury was taken care of, she moved on to her torso.

The bruising definitely indicated some form of injury, and after a few experimental presses, Shaw determined that Dani had at least three broken ribs, but it didn’t feel or sound like she’d punctured a lung, so her trouble breathing could be explained by the pain from the ribs. Without proper medical equipment, Shaw couldn’t determine if there was any internal bleeding, but she made a mental note of the size of the bruises; if they got any bigger, she’d get Dani to a hospital, but at the moment, she was probably safer where she was.

Shaw pulled a spare sweatshirt from her bag and, rolling it into a ball, tucked it underneath Dani’s head.

 “Excuse me. Aren’t you, I don’t know, gonna take her to a hospital? You know where a _doctor_ could take a look?” Shaw didn’t even bother to answer Crews, letting Root handle it.

“She _is_ a doctor.” There was a pause. “Sort of.”

“I demand that you take my partner to the hospital immediately.” Shaw stood up, glaring at the man as she did.

“She has a grade 2 concussion, a moderate head injury which is the source of the bleeding, at least three broken ribs and possible, although unlikely, internal bleeding.” That seemed to stop him short. “A hospital would give you the same diagnosis. She’ll be conscious soon, once the initial effects of the concussion wear off. Right now, we need to-”

“Move.” Root interrupted her. “We need to move _now_.” Shaw turned to face Root. She was standing where she’d been for the last couple of minutes, but her head was tilted to the left, and her eyes had a faraway look, as though she was listening to someone talk. Which of course she _was_.

Shaw nodded. “Who and how many?”

Root frowned, her eyebrows scrunching together. “I don’t know, She can’t tell.” She straightened her head, eyes focusing on Shaw’s, “But I’m not really in the mood to find out.”

Shaw looked down at Dani, still unconscious, then at the two gang members lying on the floor – pieces of Marcus’ shirt wrapped around their knees and the pieces of cloth that had been used to gag the two cops shoved into their own mouths – then at the cop, still tied to a chair. She supposed that it would be too much to hope that they would cooperate.

She looked back to Root, who appeared to be doing the same inventory she was, “How much time do we have?”

Root looked around one last time, before once again listening to Her. She nodded once before turning back to Shaw.

 “Enough. But we need to move fast.”

***

Dani groaned.

Her whole head felt as though it were about to explode. There was a sharp, aching pain right above her eye, and a constant pulsing throb inside her skull.

It felt like her brain was trying to explode.

It was about then that she realized breathing hurt, as did just about every other inch of her body.

Blinking her eyes open, she quickly slammed them shut again as bright light pierced them, sending a bolt of pain directly into her brain, letting out another involuntary groan.

After the pain had subsided a few moments later, she raised her hand to her head. She felt something odd above her eye, something like… a bandage?

_When did that get there?_

She made another attempt to open her eyes again, this time being much easier, since it appeared as though someone had dimmed the lights since her last attempt. She found herself staring up at a white tile ceiling, a lazily spinning fan idly moving air. She also noticed for the first time that she appeared to be lying on a bed, sheets and blankets covering her up to the waist, and a pillow underneath her head.

Bracing herself with the hand not pressed to her head, she tried to push herself into a sitting position. After a few seconds, she felt a hand on her back, helping her up. Turning her head, she saw Crews looking worriedly at her as he gently helped her into a sitting position, pulling the pillow that had been under her head up, and placing it against the headboard, allowing her to lean back against it.

 “How are you feeling?” She was grateful for the level at which Crews spoke; the last thing she needed was him yelling.

“Like I got hit by a truck.” As soon as she said it, she was struck with a rather vivid series of images.

Driving. A truck. Glass. Blood.

“I got hit by a truck, didn’t I?” Crews gave her a small smile.

“Yeah, you were driving and as soon as we got into the intersection, a truck plowed into us. The car flipped a couple of times; you got pretty beat up.”

Dani frowned, glancing down at herself. She was wearing a black zip up hoodie, and a pair of sweatpants. Definitely not what she was wearing at the time of the accident. Another glance around the room proved to her that she wasn’t at a hospital; no matter how expensive the hospital was, she was pretty sure they didn’t have bottles of whiskey in their rooms.

“Where the hell am I? And whose clothes am I wearing?”

“You’re safe, and that’s all that matters. As for whose clothes you’re wearing, they’re mine.” Dani’s head snapped to the side (a movement she immediately regretted as her head swam) to face the doorway she had briefly taken note of in her initial scan of the surroundings. Except, when she had first noticed it, it was empty. Now there was someone in it. And not just someone.

“What the hell is going on here, Sameen?”

***

Shaw stepped farther into the room. They had gotten to the safe house a little over three hours ago, Dani unconscious and Crews at gunpoint, Root and herself carrying/dragging the gangbangers, who were currently tied up in the living room, but Shaw wasn’t ready to deal with them quite yet.

“Like he said, you guys were in an accident. We saved your asses.” She could see the confusion crossing Dani’s face; it appeared as though her memories of the warehouse were a little hazy at best (not that Shaw was surprised, she’d taken head injuries like that. They tended to fuck you up).

“You rescued us from the accident?”

“The accident was a set up.” Shaw leaned back against the wall, gun pressing into her lower back. “A couple of gangbangers decided to take you out, kidnap, and kill you.” She shrugged. “So, they hit your car with a truck. We got there during the kidnapped part.”

Dani frowned. “So why am I wearing your clothes?” This time Shaw did avert her eyes.

“Yours got a little… damaged… by jackass number one.” She watched as Dani’s face scrunched up in confusion, before her eyes widened as it appeared the memories were coming back slightly.

Shaw just nodded her head, unsure of what to say now that the basics were out there. Luckily, they didn’t wind up sitting in silence for long.

“Hey Sameen?” Everyone in the room looked back towards the door way, glad for something to break the uncomfortable silence. “Our house guests are beginning to wake up. Figured you want to know.” Root shot her a wicked grin, which Shaw readily returned.

“I’ll be there is a second.” She turned back to the group. Taking another look around the room, she nodded to herself, satisfied with everyone’s condition, and went to leave.

“Wait.” She turned back to face Dani. “You still haven’t really explained what’s going on, like, I don’t know, _why_ these gang guys want me dead?”

Shaw just fixed her with a look. “That’s exactly what I’m about to find out.”

***

As Sameen left the room, Charlie and Dani all shared a look, before moving to following her into the other room.

Charlie didn’t really much of the layout of the house; when they’d first arrived, he’d been too preoccupied by the gun pressed into his lower back and the unconscious body of his friend that he really didn’t take the time to memories the house. As he walked into what he presumed to be the living room and kitchen area, he had to admit, it was pretty impressive.

The soft furniture was all leather – leather couches, leather chairs – and the tables and counters were glass and marble topped. The floors, hardwood and linoleum. What he did notice which was a little odd, was that there were no appliances in the kitchen – no fridge, oven, stove, even microwave.

The other odd thing he noticed, where the two slowly awakening gangbangers sitting tied to chairs in the kitchen.

Samantha – or Root, honestly Charlie was sure _what_ her name was – was sitting on a counter behind the two, which Sameen dragged a chair from the table to the floor across from them and, pulling a gun from the waistband of her jeans, sat down with it laying across her lap.

The two gangbangers looked worse for wear. Both had bloody spots on their temples where it looked like they had been hit (which they were, Samantha had pistol whipped them in order to get them into the house), and their knees were wrapped in the same cloth from the warehouse, but they looked even more blood soaked then before, so Charlie assumed that when the two woman had patched himself and  Dani up, they hadn’t extended the same courtesy to the gang members.

***

Root watched as Shaw reached forward, giving Marcus a swift slap, trying to wake him up faster. She crossed her ankles, feet lazily kicking against the counter as she watched. She could see their two other house guests watching from where they stood – or sat in Dani’s case – in living room.

Root debated suggesting that they leave – something told that what was about to happen wouldn’t really be police approved – but ultimately decided against it, after all they were all adults and she signed up to save their lives, not to babysit them.

“Hey there, Marcus.” Root just smiled at the tone of Sameen’s voice. She really did love the sadistic threatening (which probably should have concerned her more than it did, but oh well), “You ready to answer some questions for us?”

He spit in her face. “Why the hell would I want to answer your questions?”

Sameen just leaned back, crossing her legs, “Well for one, I’m the person that’s gonna decide whether you lose a couple appendages and bleed out, or if I drop you off at a hospital.” She looked pointedly at his legs, which had blood slowly running down them and creating small pools on the floor.

Marcus looked down, seemingly noticing the ruins of his kneecaps for the first time since he woke up; the hit must have done more damage than she thought. Looks like the early morning work outs with Sameen had been paying off.

“So, tell me Marcus.” Root watched as Shaw leaned forward, gun in hand pointed at a rather… sensitive spot, which – thanks to how he was bound – was a rather straight shot. “What exactly do you want with Dani Reese?”

Marcus shook his head, “I got no clue who that is.” Shaw raised her eyebrow.

“Oh really? So, you just, what, make a _habit_ out of totaling police cars, kidnapping officers, and then threatening to kill them?”

“I never threatened to kill her.” Root winced at that; if Marcus was trying to keep Shaw from castrating him, he was going about the _wrong_ way.

“Yeah I might have noticed that.” Marcus seemed to realize he’d taken a wrong path somewhere when Shaw stood up, placing her free hand on his shoulder and the barrel of the gun directly onto his crotch, “And you know what Marcus? Guys like you? They really piss me off.” Root felt a rush of adrenaline as she watched Shaw tilt her head, face neutral, voice conversation.

Root _really_ liked this side of Shaw. In fact, it was probably her _second_ favorite side, Shaw didn’t exactly make a habit of shoring Roots _favorite_ side to anyone outside the bedroom. “And you don’t want to piss me off, do you Marcus?” Honestly, Root was pretty sure she’d never seen a gangbanger look this close to pissing himself. “So, what do you say, I ask you again, and you rethink your response, okay?” Marcus swallowed, his face pale.

Nodding, Shaw stepped back, gun still pointed at his groin. “Why do you want Dani Reese dead?”

“Look _Chiquita_ , all I know was that three nights ago some guy paid me three hundred to take her out. Said I’d get another three hundred when it was done. Also told me I’d get an extra four if I could knock off her partner. So, I asked around and figured out where they’d be, then got me and my buddy here to ambush ‘em.”

Shaw glared down him, “You better be telling me the whole truth, or god help you…”

He nodded emphatically, “That’s it, I swear. I ain’t never even heard of Dani Reese until the other night.”

Root spoke up from her place on the counter, “What about this guy who paid you, you know who he is?”

“No, I swear. I’d never seen him before.” Shaw and Root shared a look.

“He pay you with cash?” Marcus shook his head.

“No, he transferred the money directly into my bank account.”

Root hopped up off the counter, heading over to the kitchen table where her laptop sat, stepping carefully over the pools of blood – she was wearing new shoes after all. “I’ll call Harry and see if he can help me trace the money.”

Shaw nodded, eyes still on Marcus and Jorge. “Guess that leaves me to clean up this mess.”

Marcus’ eyes widened. “Wait, what? I thought you were gonna help me out!”

“I am.” Root watched as she looked over to their audience, who all appeared to be a little dumbstruck by what was happening. She pointed her gun at Crews. “You can drive, can’t you?” He nodded. “Good. I want you to take these two to a hospital. Tell them they got hurt while being apprehended or something. Frankly I really don’t care. Just get them out my sight.” With that she tucked her gun back into her jeans.

As Crews started moving, Shaw paused, turning back around as a second thought occurred to her.

“And Crews?” He looked up from where he was cutting Marcus loose, “Don’t bring the police back here.”

***

“What the hell was that?” Dani was finding that she’d been saying that a lot lately, but frankly, she thought it was pretty damn well warranted.

Her cousin simply glared at her. “That was us saving your life.”

“Saving my… Sameen, you realize you’ve broken about fifteen laws in the last couple of hours?” Dani heard Samantha snort from where she was on her computer.

“Only fifteen? Really Sameen, you’re starting to drop the ball. Maybe you’re getting too old for this job.” Dani watched as her cousin didn’t even deign that with a response, merely picking up her bags from under the table, opening it up and pulling out a truly alarming number of guns – most of which Dani was pretty sure were illegal for private citizens to own.

“And what, exactly,” Dani wondered if hallucinations were a side effect of concussions, ‘cause she was pretty sure… _this_ … couldn’t be real, “ _is_ this job? Are you government? Military?”

Samantha spun her chair around. “We’re a… concerned third party.” She smiled at Sameen as she spoke, like it was some kind of inside joke.

“What the hell does _that_ mean?” Dani was getting real annoyed with not having her questions answered.

Sameen shrugged. “It means we’re not military, or government, or anything. We’re a concerned third party.”

Dani closed her eyes, unsure at this point if her headache is due to the concussion, or the talking in circles. “Yes, but what does that _mean_?”

“It means,” Sameen sounded about as frustrated as Dani felt, “that we don’t work for anyone. We don’t answer to anyone, and we don’t care about getting paid or doing what we’re told. We just… help people who need it.”

“And I need it?”

Samantha shrugged. “Well if it weren’t for us you _would_ be dead by now, so I’d say… yeah, you need it.”

“But how did you know I would need it?” Dani frowned, confused as she watched her cousin and the other woman share a look, like there was some kind of joke no one else was privy to. After a few moments, Samantha smiled.

“Let’s just say, I have a friend who knows things.”

“You have a friend who knows when people are in danger?” Dani wasn’t really buying it.

“She’s very smart -- one could almost say _super_.” Sameen let out a huff, apparently finding something funny.

“Right…” Dani looked between the two, unsure of what she was missing. “Well now that I’m not, you know, dead, can we leave?” Sameen frowned. “It’s still not exactly safe. Marcus and Jorge were just the muscle, we still don’t know who hired them, meaning you could still be in danger.”

“Well how long would it take to figure out who wants me dead?”

A phone started ringing. Dani watched as Samantha pulled a cell out of her jacket pocket, took one look, and turned to Sameen.

“It’s Harry. I’ll,” she glanced between the cousins, “take this outside.” She turned fully to Sameen, “Give a shout if you need help.”

Sameen rolled her eyes, shoving Samantha in the shoulder as she walked past. “Since when have _I_ ever needed _your_ help?”

The door shut, abruptly cutting off Samantha’s laughter.

Dani took the moment of silence to look, _really_ look, at her cousin for the first time in fifteen years.

It was like looking into a mirror, but not a normal mirror, one of those that they have in carnivals – the ones that warp your reflection so that it’s just recognizable. Looking at Sameen, one would think that she and Dani siblings, if not twins. They had the same skin tone – not quite olive, not quite Caucasian, enough that people would recognize them as foreign. The same eyes, dark enough to appear black, unless you were to get incredibly close to see the flecks of brown.

But that was where the similarities ended. Cosmetically, they looked completely different; like two dolls made from the same mold – same height, same weight, same basic appearance, but everything else changed to the buyer’s preference. Sameen’s hair was so dark it appeared to be black, pulled back into a severe ponytail, while Dani’s was lighter, and riddled with highlights, and left to flow down her shoulders and back. Their clothing tastes couldn’t have been more different, Dani preferring lightly colored button downs, dress pants, and more dressy shoes, while Sameen _clearly_ preferred the color black, and – looking both at herself and Sameen – jeans, tank-tops, sweats, hoodies, sensible boots.

But the real differences weren’t what they were wearing. Anyone can change clothes – pull out a new shirt, become a new person – no, the real differences, were in the similarities. Everyone could see how much they looked alike, or how they dressed different, but not everyone would be able to point out the ways they were _actually_ different. But Dani was; all she had to look at, was what she saw every day in the mirror.

The face; Dani’s was always showing emotion – her annoyance, her joy, her grief – and Sameen’s never had, even when they were children. The arms; Dani was muscled, but Sameen had half carried a gangbanger almost three times her size without breaking a sweat.

But the eyes were really what gave it away.

Here whole life, Dani had always been told that she could hide her feelings away, shove them down as far as she could, keep them off her face, out of her mannerisms, but she could never keep her eyes from giving it away. She’d first noticed it when she had seen Sameen in the hotel – the blank expression, cold eyes giving nothing away – but she had chalked it up to the late hour, the unexpected visit. It wasn’t until she’d seen and heard her threatening that man – her gun to his groin, blank eyes staring straight into his own – that Dani realized there was more to it.

“Can I help you?” Dani jumped.

“I’m sorry?”

Sameen looked up from where she was standing at the table, cleaning one of the _many_ guns scattered across it. “You were staring. Typically, when people do that, they want something.”

“I hadn’t realized, you’d noticed.” Dani shifted uncomfortably, averting her eyes as Sameen’s gaze bore into her.

She supposed that was one thing that hadn’t changed in fifteen years. Sameen always had a way of making Dani uncomfortable; she always had a way of making _everyone_ uncomfortable.

When they were kids, Dani’s mother would often take them to park, and Dani would have a great time, running around, hanging out with the other kids, but Sameen always secluded herself, chasing everyone off, and those she didn’t frighten away, thought she was weird.

Gaze flickering back across the room, catching Sameen’s cold unblinking gaze, Dani could relate.

The room fell back into silence, Dani still looking away uncomfortable, and Sameen eventually turning back to her armory.  Eventually, Dani couldn’t take it anymore.

***

“What happened to you?” Shaw looked up from her .45, unsure if she’d even heard Dani speak. Since their conversation (if it could even be called that) minutes ago, Dani had been avidly avoiding her gaze, seemingly uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Dani looked over again, flinching slightly when she caught Shaw’s gaze, but rather than look away – as she’d been doing – she held it. “I mean…” She gestured vaguely around the room, at the weapons, at the slowly drying pools of blood in the kitchen. At Shaw herself, “how does someone become… this?”

Shaw frowned, confused. “I’m not sure I follow.”

Dani shook her head, clearly having a hard time articulating herself. “You were always… odd, but what the hell happened to make you like this?”

Shaw put the gun she was cleaning onto the table, placing her hands on either side. Here gaze never left her cousins. “Nothing happened. I’m who I always was.”

Dani shook her head again, opening her mouth as though to speak, before closing it again. After a few more moments of silence, Shaw shrugged internally, and reached for the gun again.

“You know, your mom comes ‘round for dinner occasionally.” Shaw’s head shot up, that was something she hadn’t been expecting. “Her and my mom aren’t as close as they used to be – as they were when we were kids – but they’re still sisters. About ten years ago, they decided to reconcile, started hanging out again, going to dinner, movies. Eventually, she started coming around the house again.” Dani paused, as though waiting for Shaw to respond. When she didn’t, Dani kept talking. “She talked about you sometimes. How you were going to be a doctor – a surgeon, I think – then one day, when I was in the academy, I went home to find her crying in the living room. Said you’d dropped out of your residency program to join the Marines. She was devastated, convinced that something was going to happen. I remember that over the next year or two, she would come over and talk about your phone calls.”

“Then one day, they just stopped. You stopped calling, stopped writing.”

Shaw remembered that. When she had first joined the Marines, she had made sure to call her mother at least once every two weeks – not because she wanted to, or felt obligated to, but because that’s what people did. When the ISA came calling, they told her that she wasn’t allowed contact with her family.

So, she’d stopped. And until right now, she’d never given it another thought.

No, that’s not true. When she’d first joined up with Reese and Finch, the thought had briefly crossed her mind – to get back in contact now that the ISA wasn’t controlling her every move. But then Samaritan came to light, and Shaw figured it was safer to leave that connection left in the dark; after the lengths that Samaritan went to get the Machine and its assets, Shaw was convinced that it would have hunted down her family and threatened them in an instant. So, she’d pushed the thought from her mind, and honestly, after Samaritan was defeated, she’d been so busy putting her life back together – putting _herself_ back together, that she hadn’t even thought about her family until she saw Dani’s face on Finch’s screen.

“I knew you weren’t… normal. Even as kids, you… never smiled, never laughed, never cried. I’ll admit when, your mom told me you were in a residency program, I was a little surprised – never thought you’d make it through actually.” She let out a little laugh, but Shaw felt like she didn’t really find anything funny. “Guess I was right, huh?”

Shaw didn’t respond, still not moving. She wasn’t really sure what Dani was hoping to accomplish here.

“But,” Apparently Dani hadn’t wanted a response, “I _never_ thought that you would…” again she gestured around the room, “start torturing people, and shooting people, and… _goddamn_ _it_ Sameen, what happened?”

Shaw sighed, reaching up and pinching the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know what you want from me Dani. What kind of answers are you looking for?”

“I don’t know, Sameen. I honestly don’t. I just… need to know.”

Sameen dropped her hand and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Well, I’m not sure what you want me to say. I wasn’t a good doctor, so I joined the Marines instead.” She shrugged. “There’s nothing else to say.”

“Nothing else?” Dani sounded incredulous, “Sameen, you didn’t _say_ _anything_.”

“I said what matters.”

Dani scoffed “What _matters_? Sameen, what _matters_ is what the fuck _happened_. You didn’t just stop calling, Sam. You _disappeared_. Vanished. Poof. Gone. Not a word, not a letter, not a _fucking_ postcard, _nothing_.”

“Look Dani…,” Shaw sighed, “I honestly don’t know what you want from me. My life is… complicated.”

“Because of this whole… concerned third party thing?”

Shaw hesitated a moment, “Yeah. That.”

Dani frowned. “Is there more to it?”

“No.” There was more, but it wasn’t like Shaw was going to talk about the Machine, and Samaritan, and Reese, Finch, hell _Root_ , with a woman she hasn’t seen since she was fifteen.

“You don’t sound all that convinced.”

“Look, Dani.” Shaw dropped her hands onto the table, frustration starting to boil over. “I don’t have to tell you anything about me or my life.”

“Well considering you’ve just… _fucked_ with mine, I feel like I’m entitled to answers.”

“Fucked with your life?”

“Yeah,” Shaw could see Dani getting more and more angry as she talked, “I’m living my day to day life, and then… you fucking waltz in and all of a sudden, I’m getting hit by cars, and kidnapped and… and… I don’t even know what!”

“If you hadn’t noticed, I didn’t _make_ any of that happen. It was going to happen anyway. In fact, if it _weren’t_ , I would have _never_ shown up.”

That seemed to stop Dani short. “What do you mean _never_?”

Shaw glared at the woman. “What the hell do you think it means?”

Dani simply stared at Shaw, her mouth slightly open as though she wanted to say something, but couldn’t. Shaw simply raised an eyebrow, her hands _aching_ for something to hold; a gun, a glass, a bottle, hell a fricking _hairbrush_ , anything.

Finally, Dani shook her head, a short humorless laugh escaping her lips. “And here I always thought you stayed away because of some… thing. Something. Some _reason_.”

Shaw raised her eyebrows. “You think I _didn’t_ have a reason?”

“So, you did have one?” Shaw didn’t say anything, simply staring blankly across the room. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“And just what exactly, did you think Dani?” Shaw struggled to put a stopper on the anger she felt boiling up inside her, but honestly Dani was making her so _mad_ right now.

Dani looked at her for a moment, before shaking her head. She opened her mouth to say something, before closing it again. Shaw watched as she bit her lip, looking away for a moment, before turning back. “Do you actually _care_ about anyone?”

Now it was Shaw’s turn to stop cold. “Where the hell is that coming from?”

“Our whole childhood,” Dani continued as though Shaw had never spoken, “you just… existed, Sameen. You didn’t care who you hurt, who you betrayed, who you _broke_. So long as you were… content. When you started to drift away, my mom thought it was something she had done. Then when you disappeared altogether, _your_ mom thought she’d done something. They tried finding you; sending letter after letter to the government, google searches, hell even social media. Honestly Sameen, we thought you were dead. And now, here we are. Your alive, and breathing, and apparently doing pretty well. You put half our family through _hell_ , and you can’t even be bother to _invent_ a goddamn reason.”

***

Dani took a deep breath, feeling as though her chest weight three pounds lighter. Across the room, Sameen simply stared at her, saying nothing, her face neutral; not once during their whole conversation, had her expression changed. Dani scoffed, shaking her head, before making to stand up, screw her injuries.

“I don’t.” Dani froze, half risen from her chair.

“You don’t what?”

Dani looked up at her cousin, whose eyes were focused on the pieces of metal in front of her. “Care about people.” She shrugged, still not looking up to meet Dani’s gaze. “About you. I can’t.”

Dani scoffed. “ _Can’t_ the excuse people use when they mean they don’t _want_ too.”

At that, Sameen finally raised her eyes, meeting Dani’s gaze, her face still painfully blank, “No, Dani. Can’t is what people say when they _can’t_. And trust me, Dani, when I tell you, I _can’t_. So yeah, I disappeared. I stopped calling and I stopped writing. And you wanna know why? Because I _never_ cared. I _never wanted_ to call, I _never wanted_ to write. The only reason I did, was because that’s what I was _supposed_ to do.”

“Then one day, someone approached me with a job offer. Told me I couldn’t contact my family, so I didn’t. I disappeared. And you know what, Dani? It’s a damn good thing I did. Because if I didn’t, there’s a pretty damn good chance you’d all be dead by now.”

“What the hell are you talking about, Sameen?” Dani couldn’t help the slight desperation that crept into her tone, she just wanted to _understand_. Sameen shook her head, dropping her hands to her sides, “Sam,” the nickname seemed to catch her attention, “I just want to know.”

Sameen opened her mouth, looking as though she _might_ say something, before, closing her eyes with another shake of her head, she closed it again, choosing instead to pick up the abandoned firearm.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

***

Root winced slightly as the front door shut behind her; you could cut the tension in that room with a damn butter knife, and it was fucking hard to cut _anything_ with a butter knife. She would know.

Reaching up, she tapped her ear wig, answering the call. “Well that was fast, Harry. One would think you didn’t need my help.”

“I assure you, Miss Groves, as quick as I am with computers, together we form a much more formidable foe.” Root let out a laugh at that; he certainly wasn’t wrong, “But be that as it may, it wasn’t hard to trace the money from Mr. Ramirez’s bank account to the original owner.”

“So, you have a name?”

“The money originated from a bank account belonging to a man named Archer Commack. He works as a security consultant for a local fortune 500, and it appears as though Mr. Commack has recently had a few brushes with the law.”

“What are we talking, Harry? Fraud? Money laundering?”

“Murder, it seems.” Harold paused as Root assumed he shifted through some files on his screens, “It appears as though last week, the late Mrs. Commack died under rather mysterious circumstances.”

“What kind of circumstances?”

“She drowned.” Root frowned; in sunny LA, where half the apartment buildings and houses had pools, that couldn’t be that strange, “In her bathtub,” okay, Root had to admit that was a little odd, “fully clothed and in the middle of the day.”

“Well that _is_ suspicious.”

“From the official police reports, it looks as though homicide couldn’t be proven so the death was ruled as accidental.

“And the _unofficial_?”

“Unofficially, it appears as though several members of the force believe that Mr. Commack killed his wife in exchange for a rather large life insurance policy. Apparently, Mr. Commack was into gambling.”

“Let me guess, he wasn’t very good at it?”

“That’s one way of putting it. Looking at his finances, he was a couple hundreds of thousands in debt. The wife’s insurance policy would go a long way into paying it off.”

“And what does our Shaw-look-alike have to do with him?”

“Well, Miss Groves, according to these police reports, Detective Reese was one of the many officers who believed that Mr. Commack was involved in his wife’s untimely demise. Judging from Mr. Commack’s emails, she’d been grilling him pretty hard about the whole thing.”

“So, Commack decided to kill her, to keep her from finding the evidence to convict him.”

“So, it would appear.”

Root nodded, “You want me and Shaw to take care of him?”

“I’ve already sent the emails to the police – anonymously of course – so there’s no need for Miss Shaw or yourself to get involved.” Root nodded again; Shaw would probably be happy (or the Shaw equivalent) to be out of LA.

 “Okay, got it. Thank you, Harold.” Hanging up, she turned back to the door. While she’d been on the phone with Harry, should here… talking… in the apartment, and Root _really_ didn’t want to find herself on Shaw’s bad side by walking into a conversation she wasn’t meant to hear.

After listening for a few moments, and hearing nothing, she reached for the door knob and let herself in.

***

Shaw looked up from her gun as the door opened, Root walking back in, her eyes flickering briefly between Dani and Shaw.

Dani was still sitting on the chair, glaring at nothing, while Sameen simply ignored her.

Root shook her head, blinking a few times before walking over to Shaw. Sidling up beside her, she leaned her hip on the table next to Shaw, arms crossed in front of her chest. “We got a name. Archer Commack.” “Good.” Shaw threw her cleaning supplies onto the table, getting ready to throw her guns back in the bag, but halting as Root put a hand on her arm. “There’s no need for that, Harry said that the police were already on it.” 

“Wait, Commack?” Shaw looked up as Dani spoke, “He’s the guy that I’m closing in on for a homicide.  I’ve been riding him pretty hard, trying to get him to skew up since we didn’t have any evidence.”

“Well it looks like you got a little too close for his liking.” Sameen picked up a pistol from the array of weapons, inserting a clip. “You got any idea where this guy is Root?”

 “Hold up Sam,” Shaw paused again as Root wrapped a hand around her wrist, “like I said, Harry’s got the police on it, so we don’t have to anything.”

 “This asshat just tried to kill someone, since when do we let the _police_ ,” Shaw couldn’t help the edge of distaste in her tone, “handle it?”

“Since Harry told us too.” Root slowly took the gun from her hand, placing it on the table before replacing it with her own hand, “So all we have to do is get Reese 2.0 to a hospital or something, then we’re home free and its New York, here we go.”

Shaw glared down at their entwined hands, before switching her glare to Root’s eyes. Reaching up with her spare hand, she poked Root hard in the sternum. “You promised me that I would get to shoot someone.”

“And you did, sweetie.” Root caught the hand Shaw was shoving into her chest, pressing the palm flat against her chest, “and you had a lot of fun doing it, too.”

Shaking her head, Shaw pulled her hand’s free of Root’s, turning away.

 “Hey, come on.” Shaw felt an arm wrap around her waist, pulling her flush against Root’s front, Root’s chin dropping onto her shoulder, face tilting towards her ear, “I promise, when we get back to New York, you can shoot anything you want.”

Shaw turned her face towards Root’s, trying to glare up at the taller woman, and failing miserably. “Does that include you?”

Shaw felt Root lips graze the shell of her ear as she pressed her mouth closer, “Only if you want to.”

At that, Shaw couldn’t keep the small smile off her face.

***

Dani winced as she excited the hospital, her head still pounding from the car accident.

It had been two days since she’d woken up in that apartment, surrounded by nut jobs (Crews – obviously, and Dani was pretty sure that Samantha was missing a few screws), gangbangers, and her estranged cousin.

After Sameen and Samantha figured out that Archer Commack was behind the attack, Sameen had driven her to the hospital, dropping her off without a word. Since then, Dani’s life has been full of question (both on her part and all her superiors), and her and Crews trying to come up with a believable story as to why she was the hospital and the precinct randomly got an email _full_ of evidence indicating Commack in the murder of his wife.

“Hey.” Dani jumped a foot in the air, whirling around, reaching for a gun that wasn’t there. When she saw who it was that was standing behind her, she relaxed, but only marginally.

“Sameen, what are you doing here?” Dani was still a little annoyed with Sameen and her part in the shitshow that was her life for the past three days.

Sameen shrugged. “Heard you were getting out of the hospital today. Thought I should check up on you.”

“And how exactly did you hear that?”

Sameen’s eyes flickered to the side, and slightly above Dani’s head. Confused, Dani turned and followed her gaze to a security camera mounted on the light pole. By the time she looked back at her cousin, Sameen was looking at her again.

“Let’s just say, I’ve got a friend.”

The two cousins stood in awkward silence for another second, staring at one another, before Sameen nodded, seemingly done with the interaction, and she went to turn away. Dani looked in the direction Sameen was headed, and spotted Samantha leaning against a car down the street, watching them with a smile on her face.

Dani kind of got the impression that smile wasn’t for her.

“Hey, Sam?” Sameen turned back around, her face mildly curious. “You remember what you said, back at the apartment?” Sameen just looked at her. “When you told me you couldn’t care about people?” Sameen nodded slowly, like she wasn’t sure of where this conversation was headed. “Is it that you can’t care about _anyone_? Or just us?”

Dani looked back at Samantha as she spoke, and now it was Sameen’s turn to follow her gaze. After a moment, Dani turned back to Sameen, who gaze never wavered from the woman in the distance.

A second passed in silence, then a couple more, before Sameen finally spoke. “It’s not just you. But it might just be her.”

Dani nodded, allowing the silence to soak up the words. Sameen looked back at Dani and opened her mouth; but like every time in the past, she didn’t say anything, simply closed it, nodded once, and walked away.

***

“So, what did you think of LA? Was it as bad as you thought it’d be?” And here Shaw thought maybe she’d actually get a full night’s sleep.

Apparently not.

Opening her eyes, she turned to look at Root, who had once again managed to turn completely sideways in the stupidly small plane seats so she could look straight at Shaw without turning her head.

(A few months ago, Shaw had asked her why she did that, after all, it wasn’t that much more effort just to turn her head, and it was probably infinitely more comfortable. Root had responded that it was easier this way - and being able to look at Shaw was worth any amount of discomfort.)

(Shaw pretended to be annoyed and grossed out, but she was pretty sure Root saw straight through her bullshit.)

“I’ll admit. I thought it would be worse, but it wasn’t so bad.” Root smiled, reaching out and capturing Shaw’s hand in her own.

“Maybe it’s because I was there.”

Shaw smiled, entwining her fingers with Root’s, and welcoming the sensation of Root’s thumb running back and forth across the back of her hand.

“Yeah, maybe.”

 


End file.
